As many 400 innovative and progressive farmers from Punjab would participate in national conference on crop residue management, and share their inputs for in-situ residue management at New Delhi on Sunday.
Nearly 1000 farmers from Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh would be part of this conference and also share their innovative ideas adopted for in-situ crop residue management, said a spokesperson of Punjab Agriculture Department.
The spokesperson said that the conference, being organized by the Central Government at NASC Complex, New Delhi, would go a long way in mitigating the problem of stubble burning besides creating awareness among farming community. Union Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Minister Narendra Singh Tomar will give inaugural address in the conference.
The innovative farmers from Punjab would also be felicitated by the Centre, who made outstanding contribution in promoting in-situ residue management. The experts from Punjab Agriculture University and State Agriculture Department will also give presentation on initiatives taken by them for the adoption in-situ crop residues technologies in Punjab.
Meanwhile, the state Agriculture Secretary Kahan Singh Pannu, appreciating the efforts of progressive farmers to curb the menace of stubble burning, said that Punjab Government has already launched a massive campaign to check stubble burning.
“With the concerted efforts of the State Government and various departments, the stubble burning has been reduced remarkably than the previous years. It is the high time to educate our farmers about the ill-effects of stubble burning to ensure clean, green and pollution free environment,” he said.
With a view to making Punjab a ‘zero stubble burning state’, the State Agriculture Department has already initiated a massive drive to provide more than 28,000 agro-machines or farm equipment to farmers with subsidy component of Rs 274 crore during the current fiscal for in-situ management of paddy residue.
Subsidy ranging from 50 to 80 percent is being also provided to the farmers under the scheme.
The Agriculture Department had also launched Information Education Communication (IEC) activities to educate farmers about the ill-effects of paddy straw burning.
The awareness campaign is primarily aimed at imparting training to farmers and practical demonstration of equipments for In-Situ Crop Residue Management to encourage them for refraining from stubble burning.